> The answer is obvious, love has come to town
Problem is, man does not live by love alone, i.e. love is a necessary but
not sufficient condition, this is generally what people zoom in on. Cf.
Madonna: "justify my love", which sold a considerable number of copies [1].
I am not a Madonna expert, I gave up, more or less, after "material girl"
and "like a virgin".
Particularly the Dutch, who tend to be materialists in the "your love gimme
such a thrill/but your love don't pay my bills" sense.
The Dutch are experts in primitive accumulation, hence the observation that
"the propensity to want to get something for nothing is almost second nature
for most of them" (at least according to my sister). It follows that
entering into any type of love relation with a Dutch person normally
requires an inquiry or investigative procedure of some kind, since the
"love" can often just be another way of one-sided appropriation, rather than
liberation.
A "basic" socialist theory of love is: love is defined in the relations of
giving, getting, taking, receiving, sharing, i.e. love is processual,
relational, interactional, active and dynamic. Fields of application can be
delineated and specified. Perfect love, complete love or universal love
would be a characteristic of God (see my earlier posts). In which case that
number "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony" is not such
a bad number really, except you cannot easily unite the world with a song,
never mind find the good fight at the same time. Much better people than I
have tried and failed, and there I was, in 1977, trying to think of
something better. Singing these days often just means giving the game away.
When the going gets tough, the tough get going, true or false ?
J.
Note [1]: The Official Madonna Fan Club released Madonna's album sales
figures from Warner Bros. Records. These figures should be fairly accurate.
All numbers are sales through Sept. 1997, in millions.
Album U.S. Overseas Total
Madonna (83) 4.4 3.3 7.7
Like A Virgin (84) 9.0 8.3 17.3
True Blue (86) 7.0 12.0 19.0
Who's That Girl (87) 1.3 3.3 4.6
You Can Dance (87) 1.7 3.4 5.1
Like A Prayer (89) 4.0 7.4 11.4
I'm Breathless (90) 2.2 3.2 5.4
The Immaculate Collection (90) 6.0 8.8 14.8
Erotica (92) 2.0 2.3 4.3
Bedtime Stories (94) 2.6 3.4 6.0
Something To Remember (95) 2.0 4.7 6.7
Evita (96) 2.6 4.4 7.0
Grand Total: 109.3
Source:
http://people.deas.harvard.edu/users/students/Zheng_Wang/Madonna/updates/MU9
712.html
Interestingly, the only album on this list that seems to have sold better in
the USA than elsewhere was "Madonna".
This featured the tracks:
1.. Lucky Star
2.. Borderline
3.. Burning Up
4.. I Know It
5.. Holiday
6.. Think Of Me
7.. Physical Attraction
8.. Everybody
